God gives us His Power to Change

About a month ago, I had a conversation with a friend of mine who lives on the other side of the country, not a person from Chicago or Beloit here or even from these two states of Illinois and Wisconsin. But as we were talking, he made mention that a number of people he knows feels the church is a boring place. A boring place. Now, you may not agree with that assessment, but maybe you do agree with that assessment. Maybe the church to you has become boring. Or maybe you feel that you perhaps have been languishing in the spiritual doldrums. Or maybe you feel that you are just caught up in this habitual daily grind, and that habitual daily grind is also including your spiritual life. Or maybe you feel that you become a little too complacent in your life. Spiritually speaking, I want to address that today. Today is the Feast of Pentecost, a time where God gives us His power, His power to change. If you feel the church is boring, if you feel that you are in a spiritual doldrums, if you feel that you are just in some daily grind, you're in some spiritual rut, if you feel you're complacent with your spiritual life, then this sermon certainly, hopefully, will be of help to you.

As I was discussing this situation with this friend of mine, he was kind of describing how some feel, how during the life of Mr. Armstrong, and many of us were alive back then, and we appreciate the days that we lived in back then, that during the times of Mr. Armstrong, there always seemed to be something that was going on. There was always a feeling of excitement in the air. Mr. Armstrong was traveling the globe. He was meeting with respected world leaders, and of course, he would write in those co-worker letters we used to receive, member letters, in a way that only Mr. Armstrong would do. You know, some of the words were all caps, some were underlined, some were italicized. You know, you look at a piece of paper and it would just jump out at you.

He was a charismatic man, if I can use that in a very favorable light, a very charismatic man, who really enjoyed the work of God. He enjoyed God. He enjoyed his study, and he was very infectious when you were around, Mr. Armstrong. Our TV program was number one in this country. There was nobody in America who had more airtime than the worldwide Church of God. Nobody. We were publishing eight million plain truths every edition.

Eight million. And every year, we would lose four million people. And every year, we'd add another four million. That's saying something for a publication. We had three ambassador college campuses. We had people coming into the Church in significant numbers. Some people have called it the golden years of the Church. That's when I came in. I came in in the 1960s. A house for God was built in Pasadena. Talk about exciting times.

I remember watching Mr. Armstrong take the first shovelful of dirt out of the ground, because I was a student there in 1974, an ambassador in Pasadena. I remember him taking that first shovelful of dirt out. By the time he was done, by the time the auditorium was built, I remember being at the very first concert in 1974. A young lady that I later came to know very well and married, whose name was Mary Snyder at the time, worked in the auditorium. She was selling tickets there for those various engagements that took place in the auditorium. Of course, she worked alongside a number of people, a couple of people whose names you might recognize that she worked with.

There was a young lady there by the name of Joanna Faye. There was a young man by the name of Bill Bradford. There was a young man by the name of John May. They all worked together there in Pasadena. It's interesting, the other night, as I was thinking about this material, if you were watching some TV, throw bricks at me if you want to.

I enjoy watching TV to calm down, to unwind. We were watching TV and Mary said, hey, I know that guy. She's pointing at the TV screen, one of the actors. He was a regular. He and I had many conversations as he had come and buy tickets. And so it was.

Now, today, people think, well, you know, again, the church is boring for some people. Some people feel they're in the doldrums. Some people feel nothing is exciting. Some people feel life is a grind spiritually. We take a look, we fast forward to the present time with regard to the work. For God's own reasons, He's not given us another Herbert W. Armstrong. He's not done that. For His own reasons, we're not a $220 million work like we once were.

We're now a $20 million work. We used to spend more money back in those days, $20 million, just on the media. Now we're a $20 million work. Our numbers are not increasing.

God has allowed us to be a Gedion's type of work. Now, I don't say that to in any way say anything negative about the church or the leadership of the church. These are simply the way facts are. But when I look into the Scriptures, brethren, one of the things that concerns me, I see the prophecies regarding the Laodicea on church. I see where Jesus Christ says, when He comes, will He find the faith on the earth.

I see Matthew 24, where it's talking about the church and people, the love of many waxing cold. And so when people say, maybe the church is boring, or maybe it's a daily grind, or maybe I'm just complacent, or maybe I just don't have the zeal I once did, those things are concerning to me. And we needed to be able to do something about that. And of course, this weekend, this day, Pentecost, pictures a time when God gives us His power to change.

And that's the theme of my sermon today. God gives us His power to change. Now, personally, I have never felt the church is a boring place to be. To me, it's always been exciting. If we are growing and developing in our hearts in the work of God, we are going to think it's a very exciting thing to be a part of this work.

We're going to think it's a very exciting thing to see what God is doing in our lives. I think it was just last week as we were eating our meal, where one of our ladies talked to me about how she was excited because God had answered some prayers in her life just that prior week. And she was excited about that. And, well, she should have been. When God is answering prayers in your life, that's an exciting thing.

And so, if you are in the doldrums, if you feel life is a grind spiritually, if your prayer and study has not that much meaning for you right now, it doesn't need to stay that way. We've got God's power. We've got His blessing. He wants to be there for us to energize us so that we'll have an exciting time so we won't be in the doldrums or in some grind.

We can't wait to get on our knees. We can't wait to open that Bible and to have God's Spirit lead us. So, let's consider as a contrast where some people may be, whether they be Laodicean, whether you be Laodicean, whether I be Laodicean, or whether our faith isn't where it should be, or whatever. Is our zeal flagging? Are we being worn down by Satan?

You know, I think it's happened probably to all of us at times where we've heard a very powerful sermon, maybe in services, maybe we've listened to it online or something, maybe in our own Bible reading or prayers. We get filled with all sorts of zeal, but then as human beings, that sometimes wears off. And we say, well, you know, tomorrow I'll be different.

Tomorrow I'll have more Bible study. Tomorrow my prayers will be more in earnest. Tomorrow I will start working on that problem I've got. Tomorrow I'll start working on an attitude issue I have. Tomorrow I'll start being a more caring person. Tomorrow I'll be a better spouse. Tomorrow I'll be a better parent. But tomorrow comes and sometimes those things just stay the same. The daily grind. As I was preparing for the message, I was reading a story and this is just a, I think, a fictitious story, but it makes a point. The story is told of workers who are clearing the underbrush from a jungle. They're working hard. They're sweating. They're machetes. They're flying all around. They've got a crew of people who do nothing but sharpen the machete so that the crew out in the field can make good progress as they're chopping the undergrowth.

They are hitting their targets. They've got a target for every day how far into the jungle they want to progress. So full of zeal, they're swinging away, clearing this underbrush, and finally one day one of the leaders climbs up a tall tree to kind of see where they're at, to survey the area. And as the leader looks around, he yells down to the crew, wrong jungle.

Wrong jungle. Have you felt that way in life? Working hard, diligently sweating, doing all sorts of things, lots of action, and then either somebody brings it to your attention or you see for yourself wrong jungle. Let's take a look at Romans chapter 10. What I was discussing, brethren, there is some misguided zeal. We want zeal, but we want zeal that's on target.

We want to get out of the doldrums if we're there. We want to make sure we're making progress in the right direction. You know, there have been people in times past, high school kids, who were zealously playing basketball. And, you know, in the thick of things, in the heat of the battle, as they're playing basketball, they knock a ball loose, they grab the ball, and they race down the court, and they score, only to find that sometimes they've scored in the opposite team's bucket. They scored points for the other side. That's misplay the seal. We don't want that. Romans chapter 10, verse 1. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

Is my zeal, is your zeal, according to God's knowledge? For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, are seeking to establish their own righteousness. They have not submitted to their righteousness of God. They had their own standards. They weren't working with God's standards. So, zeal can be misguided. Again, wrong jungle. Mark chapter 1. We want God's Spirit to work with us, but we've got to appreciate that God is not working with robots.

The Spirit of the prophets, they're subject to the prophets.

Which means we're in partnership with God in using that Spirit of power. We want to make sure that we're in drive and not in reverse. Without the proper guidance of God, our misplaced zeal can actually work against what God is trying to accomplish. Now, those of you who go to our midweek studies, you remember when we went through Mark chapter 1. So, here we are in Mark chapter 1. Let's look at verse 40 through verse 45. Mark chapter 1, verse 40. Now, a leper came to him, imploring him, kneeling down to him, and saying to him, If you are willing, you can make me clean. Then Jesus moved with compassion, stretched out his hand, and touched him, and said, I am willing be cleansed. So, here this man had an earnest prayer, a man who was a leper. When you were a leper back in those days, that was a death sentence. You couldn't go to synagogue. You couldn't be with your family. You had to be a part of a leper colony. It was just horrible. You had no future. You had no hope. And yet, Jesus Christ was moved with compassion and healed this man. Verse 42. As soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. And he strictly warned him, and sent him away at once, and said to him, See that you say nothing to anyone, but go your way. Show yourself to the priest, and offer for yourself your cleansing, those things which Moses commanded as a testimony to them. Now, look at verse 45. However, he went out and began to proclaim it freely.

He didn't listen to what Jesus Christ had just told him. Christ said to take one type of action, but he didn't do it. He went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the matter so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city, but was outside in deserted places, and they came to him from every direction. So here, in his zeal, he's going in a direction that God didn't want this to go. Didn't want it to go. The result was that Christ could no longer enter the city. He had to stay in the outside areas.

So, brethren, where are we with all of this? Where are you and where am I in our walk with God? Do we feel energized? Do we feel on fire? Do we have a fire in the belly that we once had? Or sometimes we feel like we're just kind of going through the motions? Do we sometimes feel like we're putting in time? Spiritual doldrums, daily grind, complacent. Where are we? Well, today, I want to give you a Pentecost checklist for maximizing the power of God's Holy Spirit in our lives. A Pentecost checklist for maximizing the power of God's Holy Spirit in our lives. Item number one.

Item number one. Have a burning desire for a profound spiritual change.

Have a burning desire for a profound spiritual change.

Not just any kind of change, profound spiritual change. You know, yesterday, as I was giving this sermon in Chicago, since I was going to be here for Pentecost, I wanted to give them my Pentecost sermon early, so I gave it to them yesterday. But I remember when I first came into the church, I came into the church as a young kid. I was 15 years old. Nobody in my family was coming in. I remember how I learned things in big chunks. You know, I had to learn about keeping the Sabbath. I had to learn about the Holy Days. I had to learn about tithing. I had to learn about what I should eat and not eat. And those are big, profound changes in life. But as you progress on our walk with God, you and I, as we progress, those bigger chunks of things get smaller and smaller and smaller until a place where, as I mentioned earlier, you are a seasoned group of people. And so now the changes are more with the fine-tuned dial. You're fine-tuning these changes. That doesn't make it any less profound.

As you and I do that fine-tuning, as you and I appreciate the finer points of keeping the Sabbath day, or the finer points of keeping a Holy Day, or the finer points of a more profound prayer life, these things are things that really help us in our walk with God. Let's take a look at 2 Corinthians chapter 7. Paul here had to write to a church that was just full of issues.

And the first letter Paul wrote here in 1 Corinthians, Paul had to be very direct. He had to be very corrective. So much so, he actually, as we get to 2 Corinthians, had to write to him and said, you know, I really kind of regret having to say what I said. But you know, if I didn't say it, you wouldn't have changed. So here we are in 2 Corinthians chapter 7. Paul writing to this church that any number of people think that the church of God is a church where there's no problems. Please read 1 Corinthians. They were flesh and blood. They were our brothers in the flesh, and they had issues. But now Paul is writing to them because some of those issues are being dealt with. God's Spirit is working powerfully in them, and profound spiritual change is taking place.

Here in chapter 7, let's start in verse 8. For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I don't regret it. Though I did regret it. He realized it's like a parent. You don't want to have to spank your kid or discipline your kid. You hate the fact you've got to do it, but you do it anyway because it's for the kid's good. That's basically what Paul is saying here. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. Now I rejoice not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led someplace. Your sorrow led to something good. Your sorrow led to repentance. Real repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner. That you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world produces death. So as I've said to you on a number of occasions, there's gold and there's fool's gold. Real repentance is golden. False repentance is fool's gold. Now how do you know if you've got the real deal? The real genuine article. Verse 11 gives us seven different fruits. Seven different fruits for profound spiritual change. Verse 11, excuse me. For observe this very thing that you sorrowed in a godly manner. Then there's seven points there. And as you go through life and you're wondering are you repentant? Do you have an attitude of repentance? You can look at this verse and analyze yourself. Look into your heart of hearts. And here we see the listing. What diligence have produced in you? What clearing of yourselves? What indignation? What fear? And notice now what vehement desire. I want to key in on this because I said under item one we need a burning desire for profound spiritual change. And here it says if we want to change, if we want to repent, we have to have vehement desire. Strong desire. If we don't have a strong desire, we're not going to change anything. And notice what said right after that. What vehement desire? What zeal. We can't just have a strong desire and then sit on that. We can't just have a strong desire and do nothing with it. It's like having a powerful automobile. You can have a Lamborghini or a whatever, you know, Corvette, whatever you think is that powerful. A powerful car, but if you only have it in neutral, you're not going anywhere. As much power is under the hood. So a vehement desire combined with zeal. We have those things and with God's Holy Spirit, we can have profound spiritual change. Get out of the duldrums. Get out of the complacency that we may be in. Let's look at some one particular beautiful attitude here that God would have us to employ over here in Matthew 5 and verse 6. Matthew chapter 5 and verse 6. The beatitudes, the beautiful attitudes.

Matthew chapter 5 and verse 6. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. We can ask ourselves, do we hunger and thirst for God's righteousness? Are we hungering and thirsting for the things that really matter? Or are we hungering and thirsting for the things of the world?

The things of the flesh, the things of the eyes, the pride of life, as John said, and his epistle. And brethren, if we don't have this hunger and thirst, we can ask God for that. We can ask God to give us that. Now, how do we get, how do we, as we're asking God to do that, how does God do that for us? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by what? Hearing by the word. We keep our noses in the book, in the Bible. If you feel your Bible study is boring, that's a feeling. You've got to override that in your mind. You keep, you keep on, you keep after it. You open that Bible, you keep on studying. You ask God's Spirit to, God with the Spirit, to help you understand every little portion you're reading. And as your heart is really in it, God will be blessing you. And you'll go from a place of, you know, complacency, maybe the spiritual doldrums, to a place of real excitement where you start seeing things you've never seen before. You begin to understand concepts that will help you win your daily life, that maybe you've not properly employed. Let's look at Psalm 51.

We know this Psalm very well, Psalm of David. After his sin with Bathsheba, a man who sinned very, very big. But this Psalm gives us direction. True, profound spiritual change only occurs when we come to realize where we are at. If we are at the bottom of the barrel, if we are at the place where there's only one way up, when we come to see our particular need, then change can come. If we think we're okay, like the Laodiceans, we think we're rich, and yet Christ has got to tell us, no, you're not rich, you're poor and blind and naked. Well, you're not going to change if you've got the I'm rich attitude. Let's look at Psalm 51 verse 7.

This is where we go to God and say, Father, you know, something's holding me back like an anchor, and I may not know what that is. So you've got to show me my secret sins. You've got to show me my secret faults, as it says there in another Psalm. Make me to hear the joy, verse 8, make me to hear the joy and gladness that the bones you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities, and create in me a clean heart, O God. Create in me. Work with me. Be patient with me. And God will do that through His power, through His Spirit, the Holy Spirit that He gave to His church on Pentecost. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Notice, a renewal needs to take place. A renewal. Do not cast me away from your presence. Do not take away your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with your generous Spirit. So what is David talking about? He's talking about God's Spirit over and over here. For renewal. For restoration. And we're going to see a little bit later in the scriptures where Isaiah talks about revival. Is revival a dirty word? Is revival only a word the Protestants can use? No. We're going to see in a little bit where Isaiah uses that very clearly. Let's look at 2 Corinthians chapter 3. 2 Corinthians chapter 3.

Again, Paul writing to this church who had some real issues, but they were starting to grow. They were starting to get rid of some of those issues. They were working on them with God's help, with God's power. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 5. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God. Our sufficiency is from God.

It's not from some other place. We're not going to be pulling up ourselves by our own bootstraps. We can be absolutely brilliant people. The Bible says God doesn't call the high and the mighty. Well, some are. We do have some really brilliant people in our midst.

You can ascertain if you're one of them. I know I'm not. I'm not going to raise my hand. I'm one of the brilliant ones. My hand's not going to go up with that question being asked.

But I don't care how brilliant you are. I don't care how much business acumen you have. I don't care how talented you are or what kinds of things you can do. We need God's help. We live, we're physical human beings, but we have a certain spiritual dimension that we live in. And only God can help us in that dimension. We can help ourselves there. We are not sufficient of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God. Now, let's turn to that scripture in Isaiah that talks about revival. Isaiah 57. Isaiah 57, verse 15. For thus as the high and the lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place with him who has a contrite and humble spirit.

And we've read about that several times today, or at least a couple of times today, as if we want to have profound change in our life, we have to have this kind of spirit. Notice now, with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. So here we see spiritual revival. Spiritual revitalization, if you want to use another word, if you just can't bear to say the word revival. You know, revitalization of the spirit. So we don't think the church is a boring place, so we are not caught up in some spiritual daily grind, or spiritually complacent, or lack of love. We need revival. We can have that through God's Holy Spirit.

So item number one in our Pentecost checklist for maximizing the power of God's Spirit is a burning desire for profound spiritual change. Item number two. Item number two. We need a dramatic change in our thinking. A dramatic change in our thinking. I don't know about you, but when I find myself falling short of God's glory and God's grace, and I analyze why I have fallen short of that glory and that grace, I can always go back to the root cause, and the root cause is because I wasn't watching my mind. Satan got a toehold there, and I was not careful enough to kick him out and allow that toehold to become a cracked open door, to a wide open door, to the place where I just fell flat on my face spiritually. You've gone through that. I've gone through that. So we need to remember. And you've heard sermons, and you've read articles about our mind being the front lines, the battle for our minds, and, brethren, spiritual complacency, the doldrums don't happen overnight. This is a long-term malady.

Brick by brick, it's built in our life until we wall God out of the picture. We have a deterioration, a slow deterioration sometimes. Most of the time when these things happen, a slow deterioration of prayer, of Bible study, an increase in thoughts that shouldn't be there, or attitudes that shouldn't be there in our mind, and where those begin to take more of the center stage. Let's turn over to 1 Scripture I would like to spend some time on over here in 1 Peter 1.

1 Peter 1.

1 Peter 1.13 1 Peter 1.13 Let me just read this and we'll go through and analyze. 1 Peter 1.13 Therefore, grid up the loins of your mind and be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts in your ignorance, but as He who has called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, Be holy, for I am holy. Now let's begin with verse 13. Therefore, grid up the loins of your mind. Basically, the idea there is roll up your sleeves and prepare your minds for spiritual action. This is not easy work. This is hard work. Christianity is not for people who are lazy. Real Christianity is for people who have counted a cost and are willing to pay the full price. That means that we are working on our own salvation, fear and trembling, with God's help. We're not working on our own salvation on our own. We're working on our own salvation with God's help. We need to roll up the sleeves of our mind, to grid up the loins of our mind. Obedience is a conscience act of the will. Christians need to be tough-minded, and ready for action. We are Christian soldiers. And a soldier going into battle has to be tough-minded. Has to know what he's about to get himself into. Has to be willing to pay that price. You know, years ago, talking about soldiers, years ago, I heard a number of people talking about a series they watched on HBO. It was called The Band of Brothers. And I don't know if any of you have ever watched that series or not, but I had an opportunity to watch that series. And I was so taken by what I was seeing in watching that series, I went out and bought it. And normally, once a year, I'll dust that thing off and watch it. I think I probably watched that show probably a good, who knows, 10 times or more. I went through it just about a week ago. Went through all 10 episodes, one hour each. True story. I'm sure Hollywood had their part to play, but basically a true story about the 101st Airborne, who dropped in behind enemy lines on D-Day, and their job was to help the landing on the beaches. They were to make all sorts of havoc in the back lines. They were to destroy everything they could destroy at the enemy. And it showed this group of men parachuting behind enemy lines. They were surrounded. They were paratroopers. They were some of the very best we had. And that show goes through and shows them what it was like to go from that experience all the way to the time at the end of the war, where they were the group that was able to take the Eagle's Nest, which was Hitler's home. The town that Hitler used as his headquarters, high up in the mountains, showed all the things those men went through, including the siege at Bastogne.

That siege where they were again, as paratroopers, they were always surrounded by the enemy. They went into Bastogne in the deepest part of a winter time there in the Ardennes. The Germans, it was at the time of the Battle of the Bulge, and our guys were there in Bastogne, which was the hub of seven roads. The Germans wanted very much to capture that city, because then they would be able to break out, get to Antwerp, split the Allied lines, and they were hoping for victory. Our poor fellows were, in the dead of winter, sent to be there. They only had summer clothing. It was, who knows what, below zero. All they had was summer clothing. They had very little food. At times, the soldiers said they only had one bullet apiece. They were there defending that area for seven days. I think there was something like 11,000 of our fellows and 50,000 of the enemy. They held out until General Patton and some of the others came through to break the line and give them relief. Now, those soldiers knew what they had to do. The reason I watched that show from time to time is it just shows me the heroism of your, and I won't say your average soldier, because the average soldier wasn't a paratrooper, but just what those men endured, what those men went through, they knew what their mission was. Some of them got horrendously hurt, and when they had an opportunity to be taken to a, to be evacuated to the town, and not the outskirts of the town, but someplace where they might get some medical relief, they refused in many cases. They didn't want to leave the front line. They didn't want to leave their buddies. They wanted to stay put. So those fellows girded up the loins of their minds, and if they can do that for a battle, why can't we with God's Holy Spirit? Why can't we with God's Holy Spirit? So it says here in verse 13, gird up, therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, be sober. That phrase means to be free from every form of mental and spiritual drunkenness.

Are we drunken with the ways of the world? Do we have an excess of the world's way of thinking? We need to be sober, gird up our minds, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that has been brought to you. Appreciate the fact that we are God's people. As it says in Romans chapter 5 verses 1 and 2, it is by God's grace that we stand. God's grace. Nothing else. God's grace. Verse 14 is, obedient children, not conforming ourselves to our former lusts, as in your ignorance. No, we're turning away from that. And when you're turning away, when I'm turning away from our issues, that's not a boring thing. That's not complacency. That's not spiritual doldrums. So if we're having the spiritual doldrums, if we are complacent, then we're not turning like we should be turning, are we? The point I'm trying to make is if people think the church is a boring place, if the people think that if you are mired in the spiritual doldrums or complacent, then we're not doing what God asks us to do. We're not growing. We're not using God's Holy Spirit of power that came on this day of Pentecost. Verse 15, but as He who called you as holy, you also be holy in all your conduct because it is written, Be holy for I am holy.

And understand that God here is saying, Be holy as I am holy. He said that in Old Testament times to people who didn't have the use of God's Holy Spirit. Oh, a few did here and there, but in general, God's Holy Spirit wasn't given to them. Brother, at this point, you know, I've given you two different points in your analysis of your checklist of how you can use God's Holy Spirit. Let me give you a little bit of homework here. Let me give you an action list, and I'll try to go through this a little more slowly. Mary said I went through a little too fast yesterday. Seven points. I'm not going to go through and discuss these in any kind of detail, but with each point, I'm going to give you a suggested Bible reading.

And these are things for us to think about as we allow God to use His power in our lives to change. Number one, strive to incorporate the values of God's kingdom in every aspect of your life. Strive to incorporate the values of God's kingdom into every aspect of your life. Focus on that. For your study, your assignment, Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7, the Beatitudes, the beautiful attitudes, those beautiful attitudes will help you to incorporate the values of God's kingdom into every aspect of your life. Number two, seek a clean heart and humility before God. Seek a clean heart and humility before God.

And here, study Psalm 51.

Number three, seek to bear the fruits of God's Spirit through renewed daily prayer and study.

Seek to bear the fruits of God's Spirit through renewed daily prayer and study. Study there, Romans chapter 6, 7, and 8.

Number four, seek to build unity of God's Spirit in your family and among the brethren. And remember, seek to build unity of God's Spirit in your family and among the brethren.

Even if you are the only one in your family who has God's Holy Spirit, that Spirit could still be a tremendous power to everyone you come in contact with.

You can be a tremendous light. And you never know what's going to happen down the road. I've mentioned to you in times past about the lady who came to services for years and years and years about when I was attending in Detroit. She came for years and years and years. And finally, one day, the pastor, and I wasn't the pastor, I wasn't even an elder at the time, the pastor said, why not announce to you today that so-and-so got baptized this last week? She'd been coming forever. And I walked up to her and, you know, she was a friend and I said, I thought you were baptized. She said, oh no, I've not been baptized. I said, well, can you tell me why after all these years, coming to church faithfully, why did you get baptized now? And she said, because I watched my husband. I watched the trials we've gone through as a family. I saw how he responded to those trials. I saw how he lived his life through thick and thin. And I watched them for all these years.

And I heard a lot of good sermons and went to a lot of good Bible studies, she said, but the big thing in my life was watching my converted husband.

So maybe you go home and you're the only one of God's Holy Spirit in your household, but that doesn't mean that wonderful things can't happen.

Study Ephesians chapter 5 for this in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and 13.

Ephesians chapter 5 and 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and 13. 5. Be grounded in the basic core doctrines of the Bible.

Know what you believe. Be grounded in what you believe. Be able to explain and detail what you believe.

You do that. That's not going to be boring. That's not going to be in the spiritual doldrums. That's not going to be complacency. You're going to get excited. God, Spirit, and you will be very excited as you go through the Word of God. There study Matthew chapter 22 verses 34 through 40. Matthew 22 verses 34 through 40.

Exodus chapter 20 and Hebrews chapter 6 verses 1 and 2. 6. Seek balance in all areas of life. Seek balance in all areas of life.

There study Luke chapter 2 and verse 52.

Lastly, number 7.

Face problems realistically and with a positive attitude.

Face problems realistically and with a positive attitude. There study Philippians chapter 4 and verse 8. Philippians 4 and 8.

Now, I'm not done. I've given you a couple of items for a checklist. I've given you an action list of seven items. I'm not quite done yet. I've got one more scripture for us to look at. A scripture we looked at here not too long ago in Beloit. Isaiah chapter 6. Let's go to Isaiah chapter 6. This is the chapter that deals with Isaiah's calling. Isaiah chapter 6 verses 7 and 8. Isaiah chapter 6 verse 7. Let's start in verse 6. Isaiah 6.6. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live call which he had taken from the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it and said, Behold, this has touched your lips, your iniquity has taken away, and your sin has purged. So here you have, symbolically speaking, not only the calling but the conversion of Isaiah. His lips were touched with this burning coal from the altar, symbolizing the lips out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. So basically his heart was purified by that coal, by that fiery coal. And once he was there, notice verse 8. Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? And who shall go for us? Then I said, Here am I, send me. Here am I, send me. You were baptized. You have a covenant with God. We celebrated that on Passover evening. You said, as a part of that baptism, that you wanted to be part of a work, that you wanted to be a part of a group of people that was going to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of God. You understand what it says in Matthew 28, where Christ said to his followers, you know, proclaim this until the end of the age. Now, I want to read something to you from Herbert W. Armstrong.

Today I think it's fashionable for people to say, well, who is he and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And yet I know that my life was changed dramatically by Mr. Armstrong. As a 15-year-old kid, as I began reading his autobiography, that changed my life. And for many in this room, it changed your life. Was he a perfect man? No. But God certainly worked with him. And I think that in many ways he said things that were very prophetic. As I've said to you in the past, when he used to give all those sermons about the two trees, and people said, oh, here he goes again, the two trees thing. Why does he keep on doing that? Remember how people got upset with that? The two trees? And yet that was prophetic. Tree of life, tree of good and evil. Well, people certainly weren't partaking of the tree of life, but they didn't see—probably 80% of our people didn't see and understand the tree of good and evil. Because in Pasadena, people are saying, well, look at all these people who are the missionaries, and they're giving their lives, and they're doing all—they're dedicating themselves and doing all these wonderful works, and they saw this good that was taking place. And they said, well, these people, obviously, with all this good, they must be Christians. And if they're Christians, their teaching is right. And if they're teaching is right, our teaching is wrong. But see, Mr. Armstrong is saying that's the tree of good, and those works were nice works. They were good works. But the evil was the doctrine, and our people bit on that. Now, I'm going to read you something Mr. Armstrong wrote in an article in The Good News magazine. The article was entitled, More Growth in the Church of God, March 1960.

That predates me in a church by a long—a good bit.

And I quote, now, as I read this, I want you to think about our church culture and today, with all the splits and all the things that are happening in our church culture, starting back in 1995, you think about these words, Mr. Armstrong penned back in March of 1960. And I quote, I've always noticed that those whose hearts and their pocketbook as well are really in the work of God are the ones who remain spiritually close to God and who are growing spiritually. And without exception, in every single member of God's church who has ever lost interest in this work of God, this work of carrying the gospel to the world, begins to fall backward spiritually. Soon, such people go off into false doctrine. Their understanding is closed. They begin to believe errors and lies. They become more and more bitter, unhappy. They either go back into the world or they go into some false offshoot movement, which bears no fruit and fails totally to carry out the commission of Christ, the work of God. Prophetic. Prophetic. Mr. Armstrong didn't think it was prophetic. He was just talking, saying the way it was back in those days. It's the same today. If our hearts into the work, aren't into the work, aren't into what Christ said we should be doing, then we will be going backward. And this is something we need to be asking yourself. Where are we along those lines? Where are we? Where are we individually? And only you can answer that in your life, and only I can answer that in my life. So, brethren, at the beginning, I've talked about people who may be complacent, people who may be in the spiritual doldrums, people who may think the church is a boring place. Those are all things for you to ask and answer in your own heart and mind. But if you and I allow God and his power to work in our hearts and minds, we will not be bored. We will not be complacent. We will not be in the spiritual doldrums. We will be growing profoundly. I know what I want, and I believe I know what you want. So, let us all allow God's Spirit that came on this day of Pentecost 2,000 years ago. That Spirit of Power, the dunamis. Let's allow that Spirit of Power to work in our lives today.